The sun moving south is good news for my family’s laundry. We have six clotheslines strung between stationary metal poles in our very shady backyard facing south. While this may have been an ideal spot to place a clothesline when it was originally put up (my guess, summer-of-love era), there are a couple of huge trees whose branches thwart our best efforts. One is an extra large conifer that sometimes oozes sap onto our clothes. Another is a tree that drops purple berry juice on a certain portion of the clothesline during August. (We work around that problem by hanging only our purple clothes under that particular tree, rendering the berry juice powerless.) The clotheslines’ sunny spots are sparse and are continually shifting as the season plods along, so we need to pay close attention! This daily project often occupies my mind. I am constantly checking the lines and strategizing; wondering are the clothes getting the best sun possible?

Okay, so I thought I was alone in my clothesline obsession until I heard about another kindred spirit, Mrs. Clothesline, who is so into hanging her clothes out that she wrote a book about clothesline culture titled Fine Lines. I don’t think I could write a book on the subject yet, but I do like to watch the laundry dry! The ritual goes something like this: after my little sweeties and I hang the wet laundry, I sit in the shade with a cold drink and they proceed with their outdoor play. They usually pass over our decent selection of Tonka trucks, balls and a sandbox in favor of hunting down cool sticks, which they use to scrape dirt and poke stuff. They can do this for a couple of hours while I keep an eye on the clothesline situation. My favorite thing is to watch a cloth napkin dry. When it first gets hung up it has a freeform quality; being wet allows it to move freely in the wind. It looks like dancing when there is a decent breeze. The water from the cloth slowly evaporates restricting the napkin's movement with each stir of the breeze until after about an hour it is transformed from a soggy, flexible material into a stiff form. The other items, especially our cotton diapers, take three or more hours to dry. I know I will have come a long way with developing patience and concentration when I can work my way up to watching a diaper or cotton t-shirt dry! Perhaps that can be a lofty goal for next summer.

A couple of weeks ago we got a dry rack donated to us by someone at David’s work. It is a nice big one that can dry almost a full load of laundry. We use this one in the sunny side yard where there are no trees blocking the sun. It is our preferred method of drying diapers. Have you wondered why I am so enthusiastic about all things clothes drying related? It might be because I am a beginner. I don’t remember ever seeing a clotheslines hanging up until I was an adult, it was just not what my family or any of our other neighbors did. I will say, it is much easier and the clothes come out softer when we dry using the dryer and having stiff clothes is the downside of the natural clothes drying lifestyle. The upside? The sublime experience of sitting outside with my little lovies observing the slow shift of the sun and saving 23 percent on our electric bill each of the past two months.

Even if clothesline culture is not your thing, most likely you will most likely be drinking something cool while outside this summer. I hope you will enjoy the following warm weather refreshers.

Wild Watermelon Lemonade

1 cubed seeded watermelon

1 cup fresh strawberries, halved

Juice of two lemons

1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste

2 cups water

Combine the watermelon, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and water in a blender. Blend until smooth. Enjoy the fruity goodness!

Illustration by Caitlin Cole

Honey* Ginger Lemonade

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ cup honey

1/3 cup peeled fresh ginger slices

2 sprigs fresh chopped mint

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

2 cups water

4 cups ice cubes

Put lemon juice, honey, ginger, and mint in a large pitcher to stir while pressing ginger and mint leaves to release flavor. Add water and stir until honey dissolves. Pour over ice. Serves 6.

*Honey is not recommended for little people under 2 years old.